Bills Give AOC Power to Name Statewide E-Filing Vendor

Most states do not yet have court e-filing and the few that do usually do not mandate a single vendor or e-filing system, instead leaving it to local courts to decide, Gavel to Gavel reports. Tennessee legislators are taking a different approach however. Bills introduced recently in the House and Senate would give the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) power to identify a single provider that must be used in all courts in the state. The bills, HB 418 by Vance Dennis, R-Savannah, and SB 1050 by Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, give the AOC until January 2014 to identify an e-filing provider and ensure that all courts in the state are utilizing the same system.